If We Work in Tandem
by ChickInStarkTower
Summary: Summary: Galinda’s POV Bookmusical AU merge verse Elphaba and Glinda have to work together...to save the life of the man they both love. Rating may go up in later chapters
1. Chapter 1

If We Work in Tandem

by Galinda05

Summary: G(a)linda's POV; Book/musical AU merge verse Elphie and I have to work together...to save the life of the man we both love. Eventual Glinda/Fiyero

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked.

Authoress Note: Okie Dokie, please don't hate me for this. I just love Fiyero and Glinda together! Sorry this first chapter is so short, the others will be longer, I promise. And better.

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Prologue: Don't Trust the Gale Force

"Move it men! Move it!" The Gale Force captain's voice caught my ears, and I turned to look, toss-tossing my hair out of force of habit. A steady stream of men came filing out of the old building, putting their menacing weapons that gleamed in the moonlight away.

As I watched them leave, words of someone who had once been a dear friend came to my mind. _"Glinda, we can't trust them. Ever. The Wizard or Morrible or the Gale Force! You saw how they had those poor monkeys caged up! Glinda, come with me, think of what we could do, together."_

At first, I had thought Elphaba crazy. Don't trust the Wizard? What was she rambling on about? And me, go with her? In defiance of the Wizard? If defiance of Oz? I didn't go, I couldn't go, but seeing those guards made me wonder if maybe she was at least the tiniest bit right. Was something shady going on that we just didn't see?

And the way the Wizard has been lying to everyone, and I haven't been stopping him. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but am I truly a woman scorned or just a girl who loves a man who loves someone else?

Does he even love her? Maybe she's put a spell on him.

No. No, he just...loves her. But still, back to the matter at hand.

The guard's demeanor scared me. The way they moved, it was silent, save for the commander's calls, and it reminded me of how the Wizard moves right before he address the people with new lies. Snake-like. And with their weapons out. It made me think that they had just captured a fugitive or...

Oh my Oz. Elphie.

Had they found her? Her and Fiyero? Had they killed her?

My feet were suddenly moving, somewhat against my better judgment. I lifted the full skirt on my gown a tad so I could move faster. I began running. Sprinting.

Pushing open the door of the building that the guards had run out of, I whirled around as I heard a hissing from behind me. I raised my wand and called out. "Who's there?" I practically screamed, nerves rising in my throat.

I was met with a small, frightened meow. I turned around to face a snow white cat who was clearly more afraid of me now that it saw me than I was afraid of it at first. I picked the small creature up and looked it in the eye. "And who are you?"

The cat didn't answer. It clearly never spoke, or had forgotten how to. The poor thing.

It was dark in the building, the only light coming from the full moon outside the small window in the staircase hallway that I was now faced with. A door a few flights up stood ajar.

I attempted to put the cat under my arm, but it ran off, up the stairs and into the ajar door. I gave chase and slowly entered.

A black, pointed hat sat neatly on a catch-all near the door. But not just any hat, a hat that had once belonged to me.

_"It's really, uh, sharp, don't 'cha think? You know black is this year's pink! You deserve each other, this hat and you, you're both so...smart! You deserve each other, so here! Out of the goodness of my heart!" _

I shook off the memory. Oh sweet Oz, this was Elphie's hideaway, Elphie's home. My fears were slowly being confirmed. Tears formed on my eyelashes, burning my eyes. I saw a candle silhouetted nearby and lit it with a spell that I had just recently mastered. Well, not so much mastered as learned. Sparks flew for a second, but I saw something in the fresh light that made a bloodcurdling scream build in me and then escape.

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Authoress Note: Aha! A Cliffhanger! Let me know what you think, and the next chapter will be up very soon, I promise! ;)

-Galinda05


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own Wicked.

Authoress Note: Special thanks to Kennedy Leigh Morgan, the only person to review.

Okay, here's the second installment of "If We Work in Tandem", enjoy! It's still short, but it's picking up.

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I had to grab the top of a nearby chair to keep myself from fainting dead away. There was blood. Everywhere. So much of it. I screamed again, and the white cat darted beneath my gown for a second and then dashed back out of the apartment.

I took a deep breath and rounded the corner, still hanging loosely onto the chair, and immediately wished that I hadn't.

My breath caught in my chest, and tears welled in my eyes, a lump growing in the back of my throat. It couldn't be him, no, no, no. It just couldn't. Not him, not him. Oh my God...

I dropped to my knees, the hems of my skirts dragging in the crimson on the hard wooden floor, but I didn't care, or even notice. My hand flew to my mouth, stifling a sob. "Fiyero?" I said through the tears. "Fiyero?" I brushed his dark hair off of his forehead, "Fiyero, please say something! Anything! Fiyero!"

"G-Glinda?" He asked through labored breath.

"Yes, it's me." I answered, openly crying now, streaks of saltwater running down my cheeks, burning my eyes, stinging my eyes. "Fiyero, please, stay with me, I'll, I'll get help!"

I started to clamber to my feet, but he shakily took my hand in his. "Glinda, don't leave me here alone, please. Are they gone?"

"Who?" I dumbly asked.

"The guards." He coughed, his voice barley more than a rasp.

I bit my lower lip. "They're gone."

He took a shallow, shaky breath. "I'm afraid."

I looked across the room, back and forth nervously. With those two words, he said everything that I never wanted to hear him say. I never wanted to see Fiyero, the man I did love, no, do love, in this condition. Who could do something so terrible? And why? My shoulders were shaking and I felt as though I should have run out of tears minutes ago, but they kept coming as hard and as fast as ever.

I took him in my arms just as the candle spell finally caught on and gave the room an inappropriate warm glow. He winced in pain, and I swallowed hard. "Fiyero, don't be afraid. Everything will be alright."

"You always were a bad liar."

What was I supposed to do? Tell him that, yeah, from what I could see, he'd probably die in my arms? But, I should have known. Fiyero had always known when I was lying, he'd always been able to see through the bubbly-blonde facade that I'd so carefully crafted around myself. Fiyero was the only man in my entire life who had been with me for me. Not for my money, or my parents money, of the lie that I lived everyday. But, in then end, I just hadn't been good enough apparently. I had been something, someone that I shouldn't have been for so long, it was foreign to be real with someone, so I just that with him, with everyone. I was "Popular" Galinda, not "Real" Glinda.

Fiyero reached up and tacked a stray piece of blonde hair behind my ear. "Glinda, I'm sorry I've made a mistake I-"

"Fiyero, no, don't you just, you love Elphie. I can't stop you from being with her. I love you too much to do that."

He shivered, as if a great pain went through him, and suddenly pressed a pallid hand to his side with a sharp intake of breath. I glanced down. A growing stain of red marred his cadet blue shirt. I gently moved his hand aside and saw the source of all the blood everywhere, a deep wound. Flashes of the Gale Force guards putting their terrible weapons away ran through my memory.

I adjusted my position, drawing near to the floor, laid my head on his chest, hearing his slowed heartbeat and sobbed.

_"You're good."_

_"Well, I don't know what you mean, but I happen to be free tonight, so..."_

_"So I'll be picking you up around eight?"_

_I nodded. "After all, No that we've met one another, it's clear we deserve each other. You're perfect."_

_He pulled me closer to him. "You're perfect."_

_"So we're perfect together." We agreed, "Born to be forever, dancing through life!"_

The sound of the door creaking open again brought me out of my memory, and a familiar sounding shriek. I immediately sat back on my heels. "Elphie! Help! It's Fiyero!"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I still don't own Wicked.

Authoress Note: Thank you so much for reviewing!

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Fiyero grabbed for my hand and called out into the apartment, "Fae?"

Elphaba screamed again, and I only guessed that it was because of the weakness in Fiyero's voice. She then rushed to his side, not even noticing that she knocked me aside.

"Yero, Yero, no, no, no, what happened?" She pressed a firm hand to his side, stopping the bleeding. He cried out in pain.

Another sob escaped me as I answered her question on his behalf. "Elphie, it was the Gale Force. I got here just as they were leaving, they were the ones, they-"

Elphaba suddenly noticed my presence and rounded on me. "You, what are you doing here? Did you have something to do with this? I bet you did! I bet you lead the Gale Force here! HOW DARE YOU!" She slapped me hard across the face, and I was sent spiraling backward onto the hardwood floor.

I sat backed up, my cheek stinging. "Elphie, I would never do something like this! Why would you- Why would I-"

She, even as we knelt on the floor, Elphie still towered over me. Her hazel eyes burned with rage. "You will say no more! NO MORE!" She screamed again, tears for Fiyero rolling quickly down her cheeks. She looked as if her emotions were teetering on the brink of fear, rage and grief. If three emotions can share a single brink, that is.

"Fae, she, she had nothing to do with it." Fiyero rasped in a shaking, weak voice. He seemed to be getting worse by the minute, Elphie not being able to staunch his wound enough. He was loosing too much blood, even I could tell that. And I'm certainly no doctor, I'm just a Good Witch who wears ball gowns mainly and comes and goes by bubble. But, hey someone has to do it, doesn't she?

Elphie held a gentle finger to Fiyero's rapidly bluing lips. "Shh, Yero, sweetheart, don't talk."

I bit my lip, the scene beginning to overwhelm me a bit. Elphie crying, Fiyero dying, and me just sitting here, a blubberifying mess. A clap of thunder sounded from outside, following a flash of lightning. In the illuminification, I saw Elphie's normally harsh features, and how they'd softened. Also in the split second of light, the gravity of the situation became even heavier. I saw just how much red covered most of the small, though nonetheless large enough, apartment, and felt like I was going to toss my cookies. My suspicions (and Elphie's) were confirmed. Fiyero was too far-gone already to survive, too badly injured.

Unless…

Sobs were racking Elphie and I when I got the most brilliant idea that my blonde brain had ever gotten. Maybe that old saying **was** right, you are truly at your finest during life's hardest moments.

"Glinda had nothing to do with any-anything." Fiyero managed, whimpering in pain. "Fae, please," He gasped for a breath. "L-listen to me."

She gripped his hand in her free hand, and sobbed openly, as did I. "Oh, Yero, of course. Yero, I love you."

"I know." He rasped. "I love you." He said, and I could have sworn that he looked at…me? For a split second. No, no way, he was looking at Elphie. Not at me.

Fiyero's eyes slowly closed, and his breathing became even shallower.

Elphaba screamed his name into the relative darkness, and another lightning strike was followed by a loud crash of a stricken tree falling in the distance, and suddenly, as if by some unknown, subconscious magic, every candle in the room was lit. She took Fiyero in her arms, holding his close to her. "Yero, Yero, Yero my hero…" She muttered over and over again.

I took a deep, somewhat sobering breath, trying to collect my nerves in vain as Elphie gently laid Fiyero back down on the aged floor. His shirt was savagely ripped and torn in too many places, revealing even more deep, horrid wounds, bruises and welts, and for a second, I couldn't tell if he was still breathing. I stared intently, my eyes wide, brimming with crystalline tears, but thankfully I saw the slight upward and then downward movement.

I touched Elphaba's elbow gingerly. She didn't turn to me, she just kept sobbing over Fiyero, unconscious now, probably in shock from the physical trauma (wow, that sounded doctor-y), crying quietly, every now and then sniffling back even more tears.

"Elphie?" I asked quietly. A beat. "Elphie?"

"What?"

"Elphie, you," the words caught in my throat, I swallowed down another growing lump of tears. "You can save him, can't you?" I paused. "With magic or a spell, or something? Can't you save him? Please, Elphie, at least try!"

She was suddenly on her feet, the bottom of her long black skirts dragging in Fiyero's blood, digging through spell books, knocking yellowed parchment bound in weather-worn cloths of all colors, to the ground, each landing with a resounding _thud_. She grabbed one, bound, ironically, in an emerald green covering, and began chanting in a language that was foreign to me.

"_Elekah Nahmen, Nahmen, Ah Tum, Ah Tum, Elekah Nahmen._

_Elekah Nahmen, Nahmen, Ah Tum, Ah Tum, Elekah Nahmen,_

_Let his flesh not be torn, _

_Let his blood leave no stain,_

_Though they beat him, _

_Let him feel no pain!_

_Let his bones never break,_

_And however they try to destroy him,_

_Let him never die,_

_Let him never die!"_

Elphaba was spellificying at the top of her lungs, but nothing seemed to be happening. She kept going until her voice finally cracked.

"Elphie," I called softly, "I don't think it's working."

"Shut up!" She shrieked at me. "It has to work! I have to save him!

_Elekah Nahmen, Nahmen, Ah Tum, Ah Tum, Elekah Nahmen…" _Her spellificyinggave way to sobs. "Fiyero…"

For a moment, we just sat in silence, and I turned my attention to the slow and shaky rise and fall of Fiyero's chest. He was still breathing. That was good. Amazing, but good. Great. Amazing. I felt more tears find themselves running down my cheeks.

"Maybe a different spell?" I offered, "Maybe something a little less preventive and a little more active?"

Elphaba sank to the floor, the spell book still clamped in her emerald hands. "Like what?" She asked me through tears. "Like what!"

I bit my lip, "I don't know Elphaba! You're the Witch, not me!"

She rounded on me again. "Well, then why do you call yourself Glinda the Good Witch?"

"Well, fine, I might be a Witch, but I'm nowhere near as powerful as you!" I spat back before I realized what I was saying. Well, who cares, it's the truth. I took a deep breath, attempting to calm my…temper?

"Elphie, just listen to me. Try something else, please! We just can't let Fiyero die because we're giving up hope! I'll, I'll," I clambered to my feet, and began tearing through the pile of spell book. "I'll help! We can do this Elphie, we can do this! We can save him!"

She sat in silence as I scurried around. "Well, are you coming Elphie?" I asked.

"You don't understand Galinda." Galinda? No one's called me Galinda in over three years. Not since that day at the train station, the day I made my first big girl, grown up decision. The decision to change my name out of protest, and the decision to not follow in Elphaba's footsteps, the decision to become who I am today.

"Galinda, I don't have any of those spells here. There all at the castle."

"Castle?"

"Kiam Ko. It's Fiyero's family's-"

"Other castle that no one ever uses." I finished her sentence, having heard all of this myself from Fiyero himself. He'd told me so long ago, well, alright, not that long, actually only about three years ago, while we were at Shiz. All of us, Fiyero and I, and Elphie and Bick and Nessarose. Who in Oz's name would have ever thought that we would end up like this? Elphaba in tears, me actually being the strong one for once, and Fiyero on the brink of death. Bick and Nessa? Oz only knows. The last thing I heard was that Elphaba and Nessa's father, the governor of Munchkinland, was ill, and since Elphie's not in line to take over if her father should become incapacitated beyond the point of no longer being able to lead the Munchkins, Nessa was preparing for a…regime change. And Bick? I just assumed that he was still with her. After all she did love him with all her heart, and any small joy in Nessarose's life was a blessing from the Unnamed God.

"I'm so sorry Yero." Elphaba said in almost a whisper. Her shoulders were shaking violently, and tears burned down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

Anger suddenly rose in me. And I'm Glinda the Good so anger isn't an emotion that I feel very often. "You're giving up Elphaba?"

"What else can we do for him?"

"The Wicked Witch of the West is giving up." It wasn't a question. It was a statement, a declaration. I was calling her out. "You're giving up. You might talk a big game, Green Girl, but underneath all of that," dare I say it? "That _Wicked_ façade, you're really no bolder than I am. You're just going to let the man you love more than anything in this world die because you are a defeatist. You are so pessimistic that you're going to sacrifice Fiyero's life because you think that you can't save him." I looked her straight in the eye. "Elphaba, Madame Morrible **was** right. You **are** Wicked."

Oh my Oz. Did I just say that? What is coming over me? I'm like someone else. Like I've been changed for good. Who can say if I've been changed for the better, but I know that I have been changed for good.

Another silence fell, and I began to worry. We had to get Fiyero to a doctor, or find a suitable spell, soon, or he was going to…

I couldn't think it, let alone say it.

"The castle." She said.

"What?"

"A, a transportation spell!" She was suddenly vivacious, eurekafied. "If we can get Fiyero to Kiamo Ko, I can find a spell in my books there, maybe in the Grimmerie! We can cast the spell together, and we can save him! Glinda, we can save Fiyero!"

There's the Elphie that I know.

"Go with him Glinda, I'll come by broom. I won't be long." She began chanting something that I didn't understand once again. Blue sparks began flitting around the apartment, and the strangest feeling came over me, like I was underwater, I couldn't catch my breath, and finally I heard Elphie spellificying a spell that I'd heard before, on that day when we first met the Wizard:

"_Ahven Tatey, Aven Tatey, Aven Ah May Ah Tay Atum_

_Ah May Ah Tah Tay May Tu Se Say Ta!"_

The sparks engulfed me, blocking Elphie, and the apartment from view.

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I suddenly felt cold stone underneath my rear end, and blinked a few times, attempting to make sense of where I was.

Taking a deep breath, I looked around. Dust hung thick on regal tapestries and gilt banisters. I was in a castle. Kiam Ko. In a bedroom. Fiyero lay on the bed, the white sheets rapidly being wetted with blood.

I pinched the bridge of my nose to attempt to ward off a coming headache, and sat on a nearby chair that was pulled up at Fiyero's bedside. I felt for a pulse at his wrist, and was met with a faint, fleeting beat. Thank goodness. I leaned forward and gently kissed his cold, blue lips.

Fiyero's dark eyes slowly fluttered open once again. "Galinda?" He rasped.

I took his hand in mine; he gripped it as tightly as he could in his condition. "I'm here Fiyero. I'm right here."

"Galinda, I think I'll miss you most of all."

Huh? "What?"

"Galinda," he shivered as if a great pain went through him, "Galinda, I don't have much time left-"

"Don't say that Fiyero!"

"Please, just hear me out. Galinda, I still love you."

**_What?_**

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Authoress Note: Okie Dokie, please keep Reading and reviewing!

Next chapter up soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still not mine. Lyrics are from _The Boy from Oz, _but slightly altered to fit the story

Authoress Note: Thanks again to all reviewers! 

Dedication: (I should have done this at the beginning!) To James, the best dance captain the world has ever, or will ever know, to Jen, the one and only Nessarose, and to Nic, for making me believe that I'm not the world's worst dancer.

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_**What?**_

"I, but, uh, Fiyero, you can't, I mean you can't really mean that!" I swallowed hard, not wanting myself to believe it, and then have that hope crushed. Again. "Fiyero, you just…love her. I mean Elphaba."

"I do, but Galinda, it's complicated. I love you too, I love you first."

I sobbed openly. After all this time…he does still care. But why did he wait until now, until he's knocking at death's front door to tell me. I asked him.

"I haven't seen you since the day I left with Elphaba. I haven't gotten the chance to tell you."

"But what about Elphie?"

"A fling Galinda, a meaningful fling." At his last word, he pressed his hand to his side and whimpered in pain. My hand flew to my mouth, stifling the sobs that were coming hard and fast.

"I did love her, do love her." He said a few moments later, his voice weak. "But we're too opposite for it to last. You're the one that I…" he took as deep a breath as he could. "We were meant to be together."

_"You're perfect."_

_"**You're **perfect."_

_"So we're perfect together! Born to be forever, Dancing Through Life!"_

Those words we'd said, they seemed so true at the time, but that was three years ago. They couldn't still hold meaning, could they? Anyway, it didn't matter. It was too late. He was fading, and Elphaba wasn't even at the castle yet. I took a deep breath, and I realized that I would trade it all; I would be wicked, truly wicked, if it could save Fiyero. I would do anything, go to the ends of this earth and the next. Anything, if I could just save him.

And this last revelation made it so much harder to sit here and watch him die.

I sat down near him on the side of the bed, taking his hand in mine, running my thumb over the back of his hands, over his bruised and bloodied knuckles. Fiyero had fought back; he was still the same knight in shining armor that I'd fallen in love with back at Shiz. Then I took him in my arms, and held him as close to me as I could.

And it's so hard to say goodbye 

_When there's so much that's left unspoken in your eyes,_

_So I'll have to hang on to my memories, _

_And just hold you close once more._

_But I have to be strong for you,_

_Because I love you just the way _

_That I've loved you all along._

_And it's so hard to say goodbye _

_When there's so much that's left unspoken in your eyes,_

_So I'll kiss you for the last time,_

_And just hold you close once more._

_Just once before you go,_

_I want you to know that I've loved you all along,_

_And even when we're far apart, _

_I'll just have to take comfort in the fact that you're still alive in my heart._

_And I'll be strong,_

_You are the light that shines on me,_

_You always are,_

_Always were,_

_And you'll always be._

I just want to make sure you know 

_Just this once before you go._

I watched a tear trickle down the bridge of my nose as a wave of pain clearly washed over Fiyero. He gripped my hand tightly and grimaced. I wanted to kill the guards who had done this to him.

It was a new feeling for me, rage. I wanted to scream, I wanted to fight, but later. Right then, I had to make Fiyero as comfortable as possible, I had to show him that I loved him back, that if I had one wish to be granted, it would be for him.

I moved over closer to him, feeling the first strains of fever taking him over. His hand was no longer cold in mine, in fact, it had become warm, too warm, hot. He'd broken a sweat.

_Elphie, _I thought,_ Please get here soon._


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Authoress Note: I'm sorry some (CoughmostCough) chapters are so short, I just go with what I feel are the natural break points in my story. But the chapters will be coming faster now, my computer is fixed. Also, here's where a little creative license comes in. If you don't see it, I'll tell you at the end of the chapter.

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Nearly an hour later I found myself sitting with my back flush against the ornate Quoxwood headboard of Fiyero's bed, his nearly still form lain across my lap. I just stroked his dark hair and pressed a small towel drenched in cool water to his fevering brow. He was unconscious now, and Elphaba hadn't come yet. I'd done all I could for Fiyero, she had to do the rest, work her spellificying.

When I'd first felt his fever coming on, I'd left his side for just a few minutes. I'd ventured around Kiam Ko, and found some small towels, and a few rolls of gauzified bandages. I collected a bowl of chilled water and set to making Fiyero as comfortable as possible. My hands shook, tears lined my eyelashes, and I bit my lower lip as I attempted to stop the flow of blood drenching the once pristine white sheets, trying to remember some of the emergency assistance classes I'd had to take at Shiz. I'd hardly ever paid attention, and for the first time I was regretting it.

I truly realized the extent of Fiyero's injuries for the first time. I'd known it was bad, but…Sweet Oz. How had he even survived that long? And he was still hanging on.

The blue diamond tattoos on his back and upper arms were camouflaged amongst bruises and fresh, raw gashes that looked as if they were from a…whip? The diamonds on his chest were almost unidentifiable. There was the deep wound on his side, one on his lower stomach, running from hipbone to hipbone, and most viciously, most savagely of all, one running from the top of his chest to the gash on his stomach. How could our fellow Ozians be so cruel? Surprisingly, only one small cut dare crease his forehead. But, hideous purple bruises lined his rib cage, they were the deepest color under the bottom rib on his right side. Every rib was broken, I felt that as I gently ran a cool cloth down his side, attempting to wipe away some of the blood. He cried out in pain and it echoed through the empty halls of the castle. I swallowed back a growing lump in my throat.

I bandaged him up as best I could, changed the sheets, and now sat on the bed, Fiyero's head on my lap, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. I stroked his hair, willing him to keep hanging on until Elphaba showed up and could work her magic to save him. His face had paled even further, his eyebrows and eyelashes the major source of color.

Another good fifteen minutes must have passed in silence, and I just watched the shaky rise and fall of Fiyero's chest with each new breath. Then, in the darkness outside the nearby picture window, I heard a shriek, and then a series of cackles.

Elphaba! Maybe she wouldn't be too late to save Fiyero!

I heard her footfalls in her heavy, totally unattractive, **black** combat boots up the hall, and then I heard yelling, from two voices, the scraping of metal on the ground? And the voices, one was Elphaba, that's for certain, but the other one? No, no, it couldn't be…Bick? My ears perked up, I looked around, and suddenly Elphaba was in the doorway, dragging a Tin Man behind her, and he was putting up quite a fight.

The noise made Fiyero come to just a bit, his dark eyes opening, their normal clarity gone, they were clouded with pain.

"Elphie, who is **that**?" I shrieked.

"Miss Glinda, don't you recognize me?"

"Bick?" Oh my Oz, I was right.

"Boq." He answered dryly. Then, he gasped. "Fiyero?"

Elphaba nearly knocked Bick out of the way, rushing to Fiyero's bedside. When I spoke, I was surprised at the calmness of my voice. "His fever is really high Elphie, we have to do something soon, like, now."

Bick was soon next to Elphaba, his shiny, metal appearance still a little to take in. And then it hit me why he was here. He had been studying medicine at Shiz; he was going to become a surgeon. But, did his presence mean that Elphaba couldn't find a spell to save Fiyero, that his survival would depend on conventified medicine? And how did Bick become made of Tin? What had taken Elphaba so long to get to the castle? And most importantly, could either of them, or even maybe all three of us, save Fiyero?

What if we couldn't? I stepped down off the bed, and began sobbing hysterically.

"Get her out of here!" Bick cried as he began examining Fiyero's injuries. The next thing I know, Elphaba is all but dragging me out of Fiyero's bedroom into the candle lit hallway, and the only thing I had the common sense to do was grab my wand from it's leaning place against a wall very near to the doorframe.

"Glinda! Glinda! Stop! Just Stop! SHUT UP!"

I slapped her. I don't know why, I just did. And it felt good.

She just stared at me for a few moments, and then: "Do you feel better?"

I wiped my eyes. "Yes, I do."

"Good." She slapped me back.

I grabbed my wand, and spun it expertly, ready for a fight. She brandished her broomstick, which only seconds before lay dropped in a flurry on the cold stone floor. The suddenly, we tossed our 'weapons' aside, and began girl fighting. I whipped her black pointed hat off her head and began smacking her upside her green head with it.

This went on for a fair few minutes, until we both couldn't remember how we began fighting in the first place. Anyway, we weren't so much as fighting as slapping at the air around each other's hair. As I sat up, catching my breath, I had a few questions.

"Elphie, what happened to Bick?"

"I don't want to talk about it. And it's **Boq**."

"Who's Boq?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"Never mind."

"Elphie?"

"Yes?"

"Why is Bick made of Tin?" I know I'd asked her that already, just…not in so many words.

"I went to see Nessa. She's Eminent Thropp, Governess of Munchkinland now."

I gasped. The only way that could have happened…"Elphie, I'm so sorry."

"She said our father died of embarrassment because of me. Because I'm so wicked."

"But Elphie, you're not wicked! You're just misunderstood!" I cried.

"I hope so Glinda, I hope so." She took a deep breath, and continued. "I'm surprised we hadn't heard. Frex," Elphaba always called her father by his given name. I call my dad Popsicle. She calls hers Frex. Whatever. "Frex died early this morning."

"Oh, Elphie, I'm so sorry."

She went on. "I get there, Nessa's in charge, and she sends me on this guilt trip about her being an un-elected official, and she said that she couldn't be harboring a fugitive, **like me**."

How could Nessa say something so hurtful to her sister who had spent almost her whole life taking care of her? How ungrateful.

"So, I found a spell that gave her the ability to walk." I gasped again. How wonderful! Nessa, who had been wheelchair ridden her entire life, walking! "And she called in her manservant."

"Bick?"

"Yes Glinda, Boq."

"Who's Boq?"

"Bick."

"Ohh."

"You see, Nessa loves Boq, err, Bick, but **he** loves you Glinda."

After the evening I'd had, I didn't even acknowledge her revelation with anymore of a response than a sigh. Sorry Bick, I love Fiyero. But, who knows, he might not even be alive to love me back very soon.

"So, to keep Boq-"

"Bick?"

"Yes, Bick. To keep him from leaving her and coming after you, Nessa put a ban on all travel from Munchkinland. No one could leave. And she impressed him into service to her."

"Well, did she dress nicely?"

"What?"

"You said that she impressed him. So she must have been dressed well." What can I say? It had been a long day. The man I love was dying. I just wasn't thinking.

"But, since Nessa could walk, she didn't need him anymore, and he was going to try to leave, to come after you. But she got angry, and she yanked the Grimmerie out of my hands, and began casting a spell to make him lose his heart to her, only she pronounced it all wrong, and the spell she ended up casting just made Boq, I mean Bick lose his heart period, it was literally shrinking inside his chest. So I turned him into someone, **something** that didn't need a heart, a Tin Man."

I was crying again. For Fiyero. For Bick. For Boq, whoever he was. For Nessa. For Frex. For Elphie. For Me. How had things gotten so bad so fast? I wanted to scream, I wanted to shout. I wanted to pound my fists on the floor, and just make it all better somehow.

But how?

We sat in silence for a moment, the only sound that could be heard being the occasional sniffling back of tears. I wiped my eyes and noticed a small black bag just outside the now closed door to Fiyero's bedroom. Then, the creaking of metal.

The door flung open, and Bick stuck his head out. "Someone hand me my surgical kit, quick!"

I sat for a split second Elphie and I just stared at him in horror. Then, without even thinking, I jumped for the black bag outside the door. I all but threw it at Bick, who snatched it out of the air.

"What's happening?" Elphaba called, all of her wits all but gone.

"What's wrong?" I chimed in.

"Well, let me see," Bick continued as we followed him back into Fiyero's bedroom, "Part of this rib, right here," he gestured to what I guessed was a bottom rib on Fiyero's right side, behind the worst part of the bruising, "It's broken, like the rest of them, but this particular one, part of it broke **into** his lung."

I gasped, feeling faint. I wasn't absolutely sure what that meant, but it sounded horrendous.

"What exactly does that mean?" Elphaba asked.

"It means that part of the bone has stabbed right through his lung, and he's quite literally drowning in his own blood."

I'm still not quite sure wither it was me screaming, or Elphaba.

Bick never stopped working. He opened his case, and began unloading terrifying looking tools and wiping them down with a black cloth. "Do either of you know where the liquor pantry or the wine cellar is here?"

"Yes." The two of us answered simultaneously. I knew where the wine cellar was, I'd been in Kiam Ko's sister castle, the one that Fiyero's family actually used. He and I went there during our first year at Shiz, for spring break. He took me home to meet his parents. They were very regal, elegant, but still approachable people who'd all but welcomed me as their daughter in law the second they met me. And the funny part about that was that Fiyero and I weren't even engaged yet. I vaguely remembered him telling me that that castle and Kiam Ko had identical floor plans. How Elphaba knew any of this…I didn't want to think about it.

"Good, get me a bottle of red wine."

"For what?" I all but shrieked. He was giving medical care to the most important person in my life, the man I love. And he was thinking about a drink? And beside the point, wouldn't he rust now that he's metallic?

"To sterilize these." He answered calmly, holding up a particularly scary-looking, very sharp, surgical implement.

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Authoress Note par deux: Okie Dokie, my creative license was Bick's area of study. In the novel, I know he becomes a farmer, but in the musical we never know what he became (other than the Tin Man) or what he was studying at Shiz.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Authoress Note: What do you guys think of Dr. Bick?

What do you think of my G(a)linda characterization? Fiyero? Elphie?

Also, this chapter is very, VERY short, but the next one will be up very, VERY soon.

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My voice was going to go hoarse from all the screaming. "What are you going to do to him?" It was more of an accusation, not so much a question.

Elphie's words began swarming and angry-mobbing in my head. _**He** loves you, Glinda._ Was it stupid of us to trust Bick? Could he have some hidden agenda? Even if it wasn't over me, maybe it could be revenge at Elphie for turning him into **tin**, for Oz's sake? Or maybe, in some subconscious, indirectional way, a slap in the face to Nessa for taking his heart, literally. Did Bick really have it in him to murder Fiyero out of vengeance? Was he really going to murder Fiyero, or was I just overreacting?

The look on Elphaba's face told me that, once again, I was overreacting.

"Look, just get me a bottle of red wine, one of you, please!" Bick answered. "If I don't get that piece of bone out of his lung, stop the bleeding and repair the damage incredibly soon, Fiyero **will** die! Do you hear me? **Die**! Is that what you two want?"

I didn't even answer him, I just ran off toward the wine cellar.

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I tripped off of the last step, and landed with a crash. I scraped my left elbow, but I didn't even realize it until a few minutes later as I was tossing bottle after bottle of white wine over my shoulder, frantically searching for a bottle of red. Each one shattered onto the concrete floor, smashing into a bagillion pieces.

I finally found one, and took off up the stairs once again, my high heels crunching on the glass and liquor beneath my feet.

GFGFGFGFGF

I burst through Fiyero's bedroom door to find the most horrific scene yet. Elphaba was straddling Fiyero, the heel of her hand pressing into his chest, and she would pump down every second or so. After three pumps, she would lean forward and breath for him, mouth to mouth. Bick was frantically searching through his bag, looking for Oz knows what.

I vaguely remembered something called cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, from the emergency classes at Shiz, but you only did that when the injured person had stopped breathing…

Sweet Oz.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Authoress Note: Okie Dokie, to clear things up, The Wizard is from our world, so he brought CPR to Oz with him, and taught it to the people at Shiz.

Dedication: Lauren, we will never forget you. None of us.

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"Oh sweet Oz, what happened?" I shouted.

"He just stopped breathing!" Elphaba cried between breaths. "Come help me with this! Oh no, Fiyero!" She screamed, and I began doing the regular breathing for him.

Fiyero's lips were ice cold. So cold I shuttered.

Elphaba kept cranking his chest, and I kept breathing for him as Bick flitted around. Suddenly Elphaba stopped, and pressed her ear to Fiyero's chest. She swore loudly.

"Boq!" Who was Boq? "Come take over for me!" She hopped off the bed and Bick took her position. Elphaba grabbed a nearby spell book, flipped through it. She swore again.

I leaned back after a particularly strong breath. And on Bick's second compression on Fiyero's chest, he sputtered. I nearly fell backward off of the bed.

Fiyero began coughing, and I grabbed a white handkerchief, holding it to Fiyero's lips. When I drew it back, it was covered in crimson.

Bick dumped the bottle of wine into the bowl that I'd put the cool water in when Fiyero's fever had just made it's self known, and dumped several gleaming tools into the wine. He yanked a scalpel out. "HOLD HIM!" He cried, and Elphaba and I nearly threw ourselves on top of Fiyero, who mustered a whimper of fear.

Bick began working, making an angry, scary looking incision in Fiyero's side, right in the middle of the worst part of the bruising. Fiyero cried out, as did Elphaba. I felt faint once again.

Bick held his operating hand steady, but with his other, he reached behind him, and grabbed a black bottle of something with a skull and crossbones on the label. "Handkerchief, NOW!" He barked at me.

"How am I supposed to hold Fiyero down and be your nurse at the same time?" I screamed back.

Randomly, Elphaba entered the argument. "CHISTERY!"

The little winged monkey scampered into the room, his eyes wide and tearful. Apparently animals, as well as Animals, understood human emotion. He must have heard us crying, so he did as well. There's no way he could have understood what was going on. As I said, he's an animal, not an Animal.

"Chistery, hand the Tin man that handkerchief there! Hurry!" Elphaba said, all calmness gone from her voice.

"No, no!" Bick handed Chistery the black bottle. "Put one drop of this on the handkerchief, one drop only!" The monkey obeyed, then Bick took the cloth back from him, and deftly, before any of us knew what was happening, pressed it over Fiyero's nose and mouth. He struggled for a few minutes, and then fell motionless and silent, except for the peaceful rise and fall of his chest. I suddenly got very scared. What had Bick just done?

"What did you just do?" I asked urgently. Like I said earlier, for some reason, I had bad feelings about Bick taking care of Fiyero. He didn't answer for a second, concentrating hard on the operation at hand. Literally. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?" I shrieked.

"Anesthetized him." Bick answered, barely even looking up.

"What in the name of the Unnamed God does that mean?" I asked. Elphaba nodded in agreement. But I had the feeling that she didn't agree with the God part.

"Knock him out, made him unconscious so he doesn't fight, you ladies don't have to hold him down, and he isn't in any pain any more."

That last seemed to scare Elphaba. "Is he going to wake up?" She asked, terrified.

"Soon." Bick answered. "But I should have time to finish him up. Actually," He paused, and switched tools, taking up a thing that looked like a very long pair of tweezers. "I recommend that we keep him knocked out, so he isn't hurting, though that could be pretty dangerous."

"We shouldn't take any risks." I answered.

No one replied.

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End file.
